Today

Lowlights of today

1. The two very messy blow-out diapers from Catie
2. the projectile vomit that coated her later in the day 
3. The two loads of laundry that needed to be done to clean up the above
4. The two baths Catie needed

Highlights of today

1. Her hands reaching up to my hair as I leaned over playing with her
2. This song.  It's one of those songs that sticks for years (pay no attention to the random youtube video that accompanies the video.

About Poop (sorry)

A couple weeks ago my brother gave me a stain remover from a company he works for.  I'm pretty sure this stain remover is just peroxide and water and when I took it I kind of thought it was silly and didn't give it much thought.  He raved about it but I sort of only took it just to be nice.

Skip forward to the present... Catie has some sort of stomach thing going on and every single poop results in a blowout even worse than the last (we're lucky and there's usually only 1-2 poops a day).  There's no catching it in time because even if you jump up when it happens and rush to change her it's too late.  One more important element to this story.  When I dress Catie I always put a nice white onesie on her first.  I hated when I would pick her up and her shirt would slide to her armpits and she'd be flashing her belly so to solve this problem I started the layering.  I have a bunch of white Carter's onesies that she wears every day and I love them.

You can imagine what a crisp white onesie looks like after a really horrible blowout.  I take them off and rinse them well and then I take them and spray them with this peroxide stuff thinking in my head, "Well this one's a goner", and then I toss them in the next load of laundry.   I've repeated this process at least 6 or 7 times now and to my surprise not a single one of them has so much as a spot on them.  I just triple checked to make sure I had the right onesie because there was no way it wasn't stained but somehow it's still sparkly white.

Thank you peroxide, thank you Rob.
L

Response from Old Navy

Dear Laura,

Thank you for your email and for sharing your concerns regarding the
quality of your Old Navy Sweetheart Jeans.  At Old Navy, we strive to
offer our customers merchandise of superior style and quality, while
providing exceptional service. We regret having disappointed you.
Customer feedback is an important part of our business and we will be
sure to share your remarks with our design and merchandising teams.

Please take the item to your local Old Navy store for a manager's
evaluation or, if it was an online purchase, send it to us at
oldnavy.com and we'll be happy to offer you a return or replacement if
the merchandise has been deemed defective by a member of our online
returns team.  Please note that a decision either way can only be made
by those individuals and that we can not guarantee in advance the
outcome of an evaluation. In addition, merchandise deemed defective
generally does not include normal wear and tear.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to email us. We apologize
for any inconvenience and look forward to you shopping with us again
soon.

If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to call us
at 1-800-OLD-NAVY, and follow the prompts to share your store
experience. We are available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to
9:00 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Please note all hours are
indicated in Eastern Time.

Sincerely,

I'm not satisfied with this response.  The jeans won't be refunded because they're not defective, just a stupid design.  I expected a little more.

Before and After

 

I've been growing this hair for a very long time, almost two years now.  Growing it not because I love long hair but because I didn't want to pay for a hair cut.  I've have my Mom trim the ends here and there but that was it.  I often longed for an actual style but was content to keep it going for a while longer. 

There have been many times that I've raved about my Mom here and today is no exception, she facilitated a brand new hair cut from a fancy salon.  I was thrilled and new exactly what I wanted.  Allow me to describe to you, as described to my hair cutter, I think his name was Jon.

I said I wanted to cut off about 5 inches, (I indicated with my finger a spot that was just below my shoulders

I told him I wanted the ends to be really textured and choppy.  He said he recommended that we taper the back so it wasn't a blunt cut and I agreed saying that was fine as long as the back wasn't crazy short.  I also told him I wanted some really long layers around my face.  

You probably have a picture in your mind that is nothing like what I came out with.  I'm not sure how he got from my description to where he ended.

In his defence I do think it's a really beautiful cut it's just not anything that I was looking for and I don't think it suits me.  I guess the growing out starts now.  It is possible that given some time and my own styling it'll grow on me but for now I'm unsatisfied.

I realize it's a dark picture but it's the best you get.

And a back view

Dear Old Navy:

At Christmas, as is tradition in our family I was given some clothing money.  This clothing money is important as my husband and I are in a tight financial situation, I don't purchase clothing lightly these days as it's not in our budget.  I was in desperate need of some jeans so I headed over to Old Navy and bought a pair of your Sweetheart style jeans.  I was thrilled with my purchase.  Sadly I enjoyed them for a mere couple of days before the jeans became saggy, loose, baggy and unflattering.  Not to be deterred I washed them and they returned to their former shape.  I was pleased and again wore them only this time the sagging started in much sooner.  It's now only February and these jeans are unwearable.  Their original shape lasts for about 10 minutes before the stretch of the jeans makes them far too big.  I understand that jeans with stretch are going to loosen up a bit but the amount these jeans has stretched is unbelievable.  I recently went to a different store and bought a replacement pair of jeans but I remain angry and disappointed in the poor quality of my former pair.  A simple note on the jeans explaining the amount of stretch could have solved this problem, I would have bought a smaller size.

I have since heard this complain from others and I thought you should be aware of my discontent and also informed that I won't buy jeans from Old Navy anymore.

Thank you for your time
Laura Wiebe

Limitations

It seems that there is a limit to the greatness of the dollar store. I
learned today that clear plastic hair elastics are something that
should not be cheaped out on. I took 3 to the swimming pool with me
and all 3 of them broke. At least it was only $1 wasted.

Two Things

1. I've decided to put off the button hole project.  I was frustrated.  Michelle has a fancy digital sewing machine so my new plan is to go to her house and use her machine to make beautiful button holes.  I suppose I should clear that with her first hey?
2. I have this problem with pajama pants and without fail they are always too short for me.  Even when I think I found a long enough pair in a couple months they end up being too short.  After all my successful sewing lately I feel like I can do anything so I went and bought some fabric and a pattern to make my own pants (did you know you can buy $17.99 patterns for pajama pants?  I went with the $1.99 option instead).  I cut the fabric out and was all ready to sew, step one... sew a button hole.  So now I have two projects on hold.

Headband Accessory

While out shopping with Michelle yesterday I found this really cute headband.

 
I was excited about it and when I got home I pulled it out of the packaging only to discover that apparently I have a huge head.  The headband portion is just an elastic and there's no way it was going to stay on my head.

After being inspired by all the crafty blogs I've started to read I knew just what to do.  I headed over to my trusty dollar store, picked up a plain black headband.  I snipped off the elastic of the headband and glued it on to my new dollar store one.  It worked perfectly and I now have this cute accessory.

Button Hole

As I work on these craft projects it's been interesting to see just exactly where my sewing experience starts and stops.  I haven't sewed a lot, my skills come from Home Economics and some projects with my Mom.  I've made pajama pants, some decorative table squares and even a skirt once (with lots of help).  I can follow a basic pattern and it turns out I'm pretty decent at sewing on little intricate pieces.  My biggest weakness so far seems to have come in the form of a button hole.  My first attempt was laughable and even my 8th attempt wasn't great but at least it's starting to look like a button hole.  I'll practice a bit more before I attempt on the real fabric and hopefully I'll eventually end up with something I can be proud of.

Raspberries

Catie's favorite pastime these days is making this awesome noise.  I love it and it makes me chuckle every time.  (Sorry the video is so shaky at the start, it gets better.  It's also not the greatest quality but it's the noise that's important.)



I've also been struck with just how HUGE she's gotten lately.  I look at her everyday and think where did that huge belly come from.  She's sure packing on the pounds in preparation for her next growth spurt.
L

Catie Update

I haven't posted Catie pictures for a while and it's definitely time.

She's learned to scoot backwards and is all over the floor these days.  This has led to her being found in some interesting places.

She's just barely started to push herself forward occasionally.  She's also started pushing herself up on her hands and knees for a few seconds to crawling is coming.  This is my favorite of her new moves though.  I think she's super advanced though and am a little biased.

The Dollar Store Wins Again

I've recently developed a love for the Dollar Store.  That's saying a lot for me because I've never been fond of them in the past but lately I've made so many great discoveries.

I've found multiple sets of cute clips for Catie, some that I've turned into bows.  I also buy all of my felt there for $1.25 for 4 sheets.  This latest find was the most useful.

After scrubbing out my disgusting microwave I decided it was time to buy one of those covers to keep it clean.  I headed to Walmart and searched and searched (while a Walmart worker chatted with friends right beside me) finally coming up with one that also came with an egg cooker and a microwave grittle... not what I needed.  I gave up and headed to the dollar store where I immediately found stacks of them for $1.25 each.  I'm just starting to realize how many gems are there and I'm trying to keep them in mind for my first option rather than my second or third.
L

Tears and Beauty

Catty pointed me to this post about a woman who finds out, when her baby is born, that she has Down's Syndrome and how hard it is but how joyful and blessed she is. It's such a beautiful story that made me cry and it's worth reading the whole thing.  I wanted to share this story with others because I was so moved.  Here are some snippets:

I knew the minute I saw her that she had Down Syndrome and nobody else did. I held her and cried. Cried and panned the room to meet eyes with anyone that would tell me she didn't have it. I held her and looked at her like she wasn't my baby and tried to take it in. And all I can remember of these moments is her face. I will never forget my daughter in my arms, opening her eyes over and over...she locked eyes with mine and stared...bore holes into my soul.

Love me. Love me. I'm not what you expected, but oh, please love me.

...

That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.

I don't remember a lot here. My friends have filled me in, but I feel like I was in a black hole. I know I held her. I know I kissed her. I know I begged every power in the world that this wasn't happening...that she was normal, but I knew in my soul exactly what this was.

...

My pediatrician snuggled Nella up in a blanket and handed her to me...and she knelt down next to my bed so that she could look up at me...not down. She smiled so warmly and held my hand so tight. And she never took her eyes off mine. We had been through a lot together with Lainey's jaundice and I have spent many tearful conversations with her over the course of these two and a half years. She is an amazing pediatrician. But at this moment, she became more than that. She was our friend as she beautifully shared the news.

I need to tell you something.

...and I cried hard... "I know what you're going to say."

She smiled again and squeezed my hand a little tighter.

The first thing I'm going to tell you is that your daughter is beautiful and perfect.

...and I cried harder.

...but there are some features that lead me to believe she may have Down Syndrome.

Finally, someone said it.

I felt hot tears stream down and fall on my baby's face. My beautiful, perfect daughter. I was scared to look up at Brett, so I didn't. I just kissed her.

And then, Dr. Foley added...

...but, Kelle....she is beautiful. and perfect.

...

I can't explain that evening. And I suppose it's horrible to say you spent the first night your daughter was born in that state of agony, but I know it was necessary for me to move on to where I am today. And, knowing where I am today and how much I love this soul, how much I know she was meant for me and I am meant for her, knowing the crazy way our souls have intertwined and grown into each other, I can say all this now. It's hard, but it's real, and we all have feelings. We live them, we breathe them, we go through them and soon they dissolve into new feelings.

Q&A

Been a while since I did one of these and I enjoyed reading it on Denise's site.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?:"I sure do need a hair cut"  I have an incredible Mom who's arranging a new haircut for me.  I'm real excited.

2. What's the last thing you think of before you go to bed?:Using my iPhone I read my Google Reader in bed every night so I think about what I've just read.  Either that or I think about the answer Brad gave to my nearly nightly question, "What was your favorite part of today?"

3. What's a word that rhymes with door?: Door.

4. Favorite planet?: I can't say I've ever given it much thought.  I didn't ever wish to be an astronaut.  I suppose I would say Earth.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your phone?: It doesn't have a name, just a phone number, not sure who it was.

6. What is your favorite ring on your phone?: The first 30 seconds of the song Wedding Dress by Matt Nathanson, it's enjoyable every time it rings.

7. What shirt are you wearing?: I'm wearing a shirt I stole from my roommate.  It's a t-shirt from a french immersion school that I hastily grabbed in the laundry room one day to cover my nakedness as my other roommates boyfriend walked by.  I've had a love for it ever since and it never got returned.

8. Name the brand of shoes you're currently wearing?: I'm wearing slippers right now.  they're slippers I got in London years ago at the ASDA while I was visiting Cora.  They're looking a little rough these days and don't smell the greatest but comfortable and easy to slip on and off.

9. Bright or Dark Room?: I guess dark?  Definitely dark for sleeping but I tend to have most of the lights on when I'm in a room.  This seems like an odd question though.

10.What were you doing at midnight last night? At midnight I was sleeping and grateful for it.  We just came back from a weekend in Calgary and we tend to be a little irresponsible with our bedtimes when we're there.

11.What did your last text message you received on your mobile say?: It's from Brad, and it's telling me that he's done his meeting and on his way to pick up a couple groceries before he heads home.

12.Where is your letter box?: We're in a new community so we have those clusters of mailboxes, ours just happens to be right across the street.

13. What's a word that you say a lot?:

14.Who told you he/she loved you last?: My Mom, I just got off the phone with her not too long ago.

15. Last furry thing you touched?: Catie's teddy bear.  It's not the most baby friendly as the fur pulls off easily but it's a great size so she plays with it with supervision.  Her cousin Riley gave it to her but don't remind him because he'll complain for weeks that he doesn't have his bear anymore.  It's was a voluntary gift I'm just not sure he realized what giving it away really meant.

16. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?: None.

17. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed? Do people use film these days?

18. Favorite age you have been so far? 21 was a good age, I also really liked 25.

19. Your worst enemy? Our downstairs neighbor.  He's not such a big fan of ours and we're not terribly pleased with him.  Thankfully the last week and a half has been uneventful.

20. What is your current desktop picture? It's called feather texture and it's incredibly boring.  I recently reformatted my computer and since having the iPhone it's become more of a way to watch things on the TV that being used all that often.  Since that's the case I can't be bothered to do much customization. My computer came with some great pictures that would be fine but none of them are the proper size for a widescreen monitor.

21.What was the last thing you said to someone? I'd really rather not watch hockey.  Brad and I were watching Olympic stuff and we landed on Women's hockey.  I don't enjoy watching a game that's close never mind a team getting slaughtered.  We're now watching cross country skiing instead.  They just showed a crazy wipe out!

22. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly: Definitely a million bucks.  I can fly anywhere I want to go on a plane if I had a million bucks and think of all the other fun stuff I could do as well.

23. Do you like someone? I like lots of people!

24. Last song you listened to? Something by Alexz Johnson, that's what we were listening to on the way home from Calgary.

25. If the last person you spoke to was getting shot at, would you jump in front of the bullet?: I'd like to think so since it would be Brad and I don't like the idea of him getting shot.  I'm not sure you ever really know what you'd do in that situation until it happens though.

26. If you could punch 1 person in your life right now, who would it be?: I'm not much a of a physically violent person so there's no one I'd choose to punch.

27. What is the closest object to your left foot?: Catie's dress.  It's real cute with brown and green and blue polka dots.  I'm slowly working on her laundry.  There's also a pillow for the couch  and "Are You My Mother?" that I just read to Catie.

Quiet Book, Page 9 & 10

These are my last two pages.  Once I posted about them it seems like so few but you can probably imagine that it's a pretty fat book so I think I'll leave things here.  the mailbox page has the flag that stands up and the mailbox opens up and has a letter inside.  Eventually I'll write some sort of message on it.  Jill wrote, "To Oscar, Mommy Loves You".  I'll probably do the same.

 The next page is my variation of the standard book that you lace up.  I didn't want to have to buy the gromet things to make holes for the laces so instead I created this dress that you tie the bow.  I know it's not the same but it was quick to put together and I think it's cute.

I'm also working on a Scripture stories quiet book that is turning out even better than I had imagined.  I've already completed Lehi's Vision, Ammon cutting off the arms to protect the sheep and putting on the Armour of God.  I'll post pictures of those pages when I complete them but until now you'll just have to use your imagination.

Quiet Book, Page 7 & 8

At this point in the process I was starting to feel a little more confidant in my abilities and I started to branch out a bit (and I mean a tiny bit) from Jill's designs. 

Jill had included a tent that zipped with a bear in it, I added mesh windows (out of a dollar store laundry bag) and I created my own bear and fire (the marshmallow is stuffed with a tiny bit of batting).

The stoplight is certainly nothing special but it's a fun colour matching page.

Quiet Book, Page 5 & 6

This barn page was so much fun to put together, I loved how the finger puppets turned out and the barn itself.  I don't know how Jill came up with so many awesome ideas but I'm grateful for them. 

I made a cute little cow puppet too but he got lost.  Take it from me, when you go outside to use the sidewalk to pound in your grommets take out all the little pieces if it's windy.


The paperdoll page has a pocket underneath her name to store all the clothes and there are jeans, two shirts a skirt and a dress.

An Update

So I've always thought Apple was a good company and then there was the gift card incident.  The whole thing has been cleared up so quickly that rather than being angry at Apple I'm impressed.

Brad sent one email of complaint and we were offered a full refund for the gift cards.  I also received a very nice response to my letter.  I'm impressed that they contacted us so quickly and that our money is not stuck in gift cards. 

Thanks Apple.
L

So Angry

Dear Apple:

My husband and I have been long time iTunes users.  We have both owned iPods and have been very pleased with them never having experienced a problem.

Recently we both made the switch to iPhones and again have been very pleased.  This switch was made shortly before my husband’s birthday so he requested gift cards to iTunes.  He received $90 in iTunes gift cards and was excited about all the new apps he could buy.  It was only after our credit card was charged that we discovered that iPhone applications cannot be purchased with gift cards through the Canadian iTunes store.

We are incredibly angry over this discovery.  We do not purchase music or movies through iTunes and we have no desire to but we now own $90 in gift cards that we won’t use.  It isn’t clear anywhere on the cards that applications can’t be purchased with them though it does state that they are only valid in Canada so we can’t even sell them to someone in the US.

To not include this information on the cards is dishonest and I’m sure I’m not alone in this complaint.  It gives me serious doubts about the way Apple runs it’s business.

L

Quiet Book, Page 3 & 4

The goldfish was the first page I completely finished and it turned out so well that it encouraged me to continue on to the following pages.  The fish velcro off and on.

Above Catie's name are the embroidered words, "My Name Is" and then the letters of her name button off an on.  As a not very experienced sewer this page was my first introduction to the really tight zig zag stitch and it turned out better than I thought.  The only thing that could have made it easier was using new thread.  I've been lucky and have been able to borrow my Mom's supply of thread so I didn't have a buy a bunch of colours but her supply is actually her Mother's old supply so the thread is probably all 20 years old meaning it's really, really curly.  Occasionally the curl becomes too much for my machine and a re-thread is necessary.  The inconvenience has been worth the money saving though and it all worked out in the end (the "M" seems to have disappeared).

Quiet Book, Page 1 & 2

Part of the reason I've been so neglectful of the blog lately has been because I've been making a Quiet book for Catie.  I'm really thrilled with how it's turned out and it's finally close enough to done that I thought I'd post pictures.  I haven't sewn any of the pages together yet but unless I have any other page ideas then I'm declaring this book done.

Most of my ideas I've taken from Jill who made an amazing book for her son.  I loved just about everything she did though I wanted some of the pages to be a little more girly since the book is for a girl.  I thought I'd post a new page layout a day so you can see them all.

I hope you enjoy.

I love these pages so much, her way of cutting out and sewing all the leaves onto the tree makes it look adorable.  I added the apples that snap into the tree and a basket to slip them in and Catie loves pulling them off.  This is probably her favourite page. 

The flowers have this cute bee that zips up and down (Catie says bzzz, bzzz). 

I embroidered the words, "Good Morning" and "How Do You Do?"  on the two pages.  By now the song In the Leafy Treetops should be running through your head because that's where they're from.  I'm calling page 1 and 2 a complete success.

L

Possession

One of the things that Brad and I love most about our new house is that it has a dishwasher.  It's something I haven't had since I lived at home and we're really enjoying not having to do all our dishes by hand.

There is a little something about this dishwasher though that's a little odd.  On multiple occasions (and we're not talking about 1 or 2 here) Brad or I will turn to the other and say, "Did you start the dishwasher?"  We'll have suddenly noticed that it's running though neither of us have started it and there isn't any soap in it.

Our dishwasher spontaneously starts and we're constantly going over and shutting it off.
L